Chicago Day 2: Owen, Jesse and Holly

So, after the relief of the hotel visit, we were off to meet our good friends Jesse and Holly, and to meet Owen for the second time... we actually got to meet him when he was about a week old last July.


Jesse and Holly had us out to eat at M. Henry - a great breakfast place in their neighborhood (Andersonville). It was a great preview for things to come. Owen is 7 months old, and just started crawling, so he was definitely more wiggly than Greta. He's also eating some food, so holding and chewing on spoons is great fun. He's a great kid and very well behaved, hopefully Greta will be the same in 3 months!

Greta and Owen checking each other out at Breakfast:

After breakfast it was off to Lincoln Park Zoo... very cool, right near downtown, so you've got the backdrop of all the skyscrapers of downtown chicago. Another big plus, the zoo is always free... I am sure that Greta and Owen will be much more enthralled with the zoo in about a year from now, but they did take notice...

Greta checking out the 'Monkey guys' jumping around

Greta getting ready to say... "holy cow, did you see that crazy monkey jumping around?"

Then it was time to head home for an end to the short road trip. Greta had a bit of a melt down at Lafayette, but we got throgh that one with a stop for dinner (for everyone including Greta)... she then slept the rest of the way, with just a brief time waking up in Indy, but then went back to sleep... Successful road trip... Austin here we come!

Greta Survived the hotel

Greta did great in the hotel... It's pretty much the first time she's been in her pack and play since she was about a week old, and the very first time she's been in a hotel. So we were certainly a bit anxious to see how it went.

Well it was great. She slept pretty much like normal, from about 10 PM until 8:45 AM with only getting up once for a short feeding... what a relief.. obviously that's not saying it will be this good for the whole time in Austin, but at least we know she can do it.

Here's proof of how happy she was after she got up and put her in the big hotel bed:

Greta Visits Quinn, Erin and Jeremiah

So, first stop in Chicago after checking in to the hotel, was to visit some friends. Erin graciously had us all over for dinner and fun. And what a great dinner it was, fresh baked bread, short ribs, and potatoes. It was delicious! I didn't seem to get a picture of it though, bummer.

It was great catching up with Erin and Jeremiah, and Quinn was absolutely giddy to meet Greta.

Road Trip Logistics

So... Greta is still 100% breastfed... so when you head out on the road, there are some logistical items to take into account.

Thanks to Melanie's good friend from college, Julianne, we had it all under control. Julianne who took her own road trip from Providence to Cincinnati at Christmas, gave us great info and a nice little present to help with modesty for breastfeeding and pumping....

Behold the Hooter Hider (aka an apron):

And We're Off - Our First Road Trip - Chicago

We've got a really big road trip coming up... as in Cincinnati to Austin. So we thought we'd head to Chicago to see some good friends, and see how Greta was going to do away from home...

So here we go.... we're off! For an 18 lb 4 month old, she sure has a lot of 'stuff'.